News
Inside Musk’s meeting with Trump and tech leaders
Elon Musk attended a tech summit today hosted by President-elect Donald Trump at Trump Tower in New York City. Several Silicon Valley executives were in attendance, including many that had notably opposed Trump’s candidacy during the election. Along with Musk, some of the other summit-goers included Tim Cook of Apple, Larry Page of Alphabet (Google), Jeff Bezos of Amazon & Blue Origin, and Travis Kalanick of Uber.

Elon Musk entering the elevator at Trump Tower in Manhattan ahead of tech summit with President-elect Trump [Credit: Mark Kennedy via Twitter]
Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos showed up early at Trump Tower. Musk, Google co-founder and Alphabet CEO Larry Page and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg were some of the other tech executives who arrived later, ignoring a flurry of questions shouted by reporters, as they made their way into the elevators.
Here’s Elon Musk making a quick entrance into the elevator at Trump Tower.
Another day of #TrumpTower WATCH, another high-profile sighting. Latest Trump visitor? Tesla/SpaceX founder Elon Musk. pic.twitter.com/0mBcZcZXRj
— SamiaKhan-FoxNewsNow (@SamiaFOX10) December 14, 2016
The overall agenda was originally assumed to have been focused on job creation, and given the entrepreneurial success and employment numbers of the executives at the summit, it was certainly a safe assumption. The first three minutes of the meeting were live streamed via several news outlets, including C-SPAN and CNBC, before the doors were apparently closed to media.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeKSimdqpHo
In the short streamed portion of the meeting, Trump’s introductory comments were very positive, emphasizing that he wanted to help the executives to succeed in their businesses. He made mention of the beneficial stock market bounce that came with his election and that he wanted that bounce to continue.
“So right now, everybody in this room has to like me at least a little bit.”
After emphasizing his appreciation for the “incredible innovation” of the companies represented, Trump put forward an open door policy.
“Anything we can do to help…we’re gonna be there for you….I call you, you call me…There’s no formal chain of command here.”
TRUMP TO TECH TITANS: Call me anytime, there's 'no formal chain of command around here' https://t.co/QLXrvghx41 pic.twitter.com/CAdOeo7XjK
— Insider Tech (@TechInsider) December 14, 2016
Trump began a discussion on his intentions for easing trade and border restrictions to benefit all involved before the video ended.
We’ll be sure to provide updates as we learn more about what was discussed at the meeting.
Motherboard of Jesus! $3 Trillion of Market Cap in this room #tech #innovation #USeconomy #disruptors #trumptech #trumptower #SiliconValley pic.twitter.com/pn6PKzjWgh
— Diane Mantouvalos (@AndoniaPR) December 14, 2016
UPDATE
Reince Priebus, former chair of the Republican National Committee and Trump’s Chief of Staff, tweeted that job creation and economic growth were the topics of the summit.
Today's tech summit included productive discussions about job creation & economic growth. We're on track to make America first again pic.twitter.com/tFU3ObcB0i
— Reince Priebus (@Reince) December 14, 2016
Elon Musk
The Boring Company’s latest Tesla tunnel truck mod “fits like a glove”
The Boring Company has modified a Tesla powered tunnel truck to carry freight containers underground.
The Boring Company has found a second job for the Tesla hardware it already runs underground. In a post on X, Elon Musk’s tunneling company showed its latest Prufrock Liner Truck modified to carry a standard 20 foot shipping container. “Using TBC tunnels to transport freight,” the company wrote. “The latest Prufrock Liner Truck (using Tesla Model 3 batteries and drive units) has been modified to carry a standard 20′ shipping container. Fits like a glove!”
The photo shows a red container sitting on a long, low white chassis parked outside, with drive hardware visible at one end. The Boring Company did not say where or when freight hauling would start, which customers it has in mind, or how many trucks it is converting.
Using TBC tunnels to transport freight.
The latest Prufrock Liner Truck (using Tesla Model 3 batteries and drive units) has been modified to carry a standard 20’ shipping container.
Fits like a glove! https://t.co/VV0phWK4fc
— The Boring Company (@boringcompany) October 19, 2026
Until now, the liner trucks have hauled concrete. Teslarati reported in August on Liner Truck 3, which uses Model 3 battery packs and drive units to move more than 22,000 pounds of precast tunnel segments to the boring machine. It has 28 miles of range, tops out at 12 mph, and is piloted remotely from the company’s operations center in Texas. The freight version appears to be the same platform with a different bed, and The Boring Company has not said whether it will also be remotely piloted.
Freight has been on the company’s menu for years. When TBC updated its product lineup in 2021, its freight tunnel was described as sized to fit a standard shipping container, “barely.” The company later used the idea at Tesla’s own factory, where Prufrock 3 dug a tunnel to Giga Texas that now moves finished Cybertrucks away from the production line.
The Boring Company closed a $3 billion Series D in September at a $23 billion valuation, and Teslarati has covered how that money is tied to a UAE tunneling push and a faster Nashville build. In Nashville, Prufrock MB1 and MB2 are mining at the same time, and a third machine is expected to launch in late October. Each machine needs a steady supply of liner trucks, so any design that works for segments and containers alike gives the company more use out of the same Tesla parts.
The Vegas Loop remains the only Boring Company system open to the public, and it moves passengers in Tesla vehicles. A freight service would be a separate product, and the post gave no indication that one is close to launch. For now, it is a truck, a container and a short caption saying they fit together.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk will give ‘every kid in America’ a SpaceX share in 2027
Elon Musk said he is planning to give “every one of his SpaceX shares to every kid in America” in 2027, stating that “this will be the first of many.”
SpaceX went public earlier this year, and its stock price has been relatively stable since leveling off shortly after its IPO. Based on its current price, it’s a gift of just over $10 billion to children across the United States.
It appears to be closely related to President Donald Trump’s bank accounts for children, which were set up earlier this year as Trump Accounts.
Just hours earlier, Anthropic had announced the establishment of its Anthropic Public Benefit Fund, “a new wholly-owned entity dedicated entirely to public benefit.” Musk responded by stating he recommended “giving the shares directly to the public,” and that he would be doing it that way.
Just a little bit later, Musk said children across the U.S. would be getting a share from him:
Next year, I will give one of my SpaceX shares to every kid in America.
This will be the first of many.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 19, 2026
There are roughly 70 million children, meaning someone under the age of 18, in the United States, according to the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics. Musk’s ownership of SpaceX stock shows he has around 849 million Class A shares of SpaceX stock, according to filings with the SEC.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk reveals why Boring Co’s biggest East Coast project never happened
Elon Musk revealed in a post on X that “Permits were impossible to get,” explaining the fate of The Boring Company’s most ambitious East Coast proposal.
The comment responded to a query about what became of his July 20, 2017 announcement that he had “just received verbal govt approval” for an underground Hyperloop connecting New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C., capable of carrying passengers from the Big Apple to the Nation’s Capital in just 29 minutes.
The Boring Company receives verbal ‘approval’ to build NY to DC Hyperloop tunnel
The 2017 post, which envisioned city-center stations and multiple elevators in each city, sparked immediate scrutiny. Local and state officials in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and D.C. said they had no knowledge of any approval. A White House spokesperson confirmed only “promising conversations” about the transformative infrastructure.
Musk clarified shortly after that there was “still a lot of work” to do for formal approvals.
@cybrtrkguy Permits were impossible to get
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 19, 2026
Limited progress followed, as Maryland Governor Larry Hogan’s administration issued a conditional utility permit and supported work near Fort Meade. In 2018, Washington, D.C., granted a preliminary permit for site preparation and excavation on a vacant lot at 53 New York Ave. NE in the NoMa neighborhood, which The Boring Company said could become a station.
A draft environmental assessment for a D.C.-Baltimore segment was released in 2019. Yet, by April 2021, the company had removed the project from its website, and the Federal Highway Administration reported receiving no indication of further interest. Communication with Maryland officials had ceased.
The full corridor would have required coordination among the District of Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, the Federal Highway Administration, the Army Corps of Engineers, the National Park Service, and other agencies.
Environmental reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act, utility clearances, and approvals for novel infrastructure added to the overall complexity of the project and its approval.
Speculation on the permitting barriers centers around a few factors, but a multi-state, multi-level route involving unproven high-speed vacuum-tube technology inherently triggers exhaustive safety, environmental, and engineering reviews that can stretch for years, even for conventional projects.
There are also other elements, of course, like officials who may face political exposure if a privately funded, untested system encountered anything such as cost overruns, delays, or safety issues. On the outset of this project, there were limited things such as engineering plans or demonstrated technology maturity, which also added to the potential skepticism.
The East Coast vision for Boring Co., once framed as a privately funded revolution that could reshape Northeast travel, quietly ended without construction of the promised network. Musk’s recent statement frames the outcome as a regulatory impasse, unfortunate but not unexpected.